The Memphis Grizzlies‘ season came to an end on Wednesday after a disappointing blowout loss against the Utah Jazz in game 5. That said, nobody really expected the Grizzlies to take the team with the best record in the league to five games.
You could even take a step back. Nobody expected this Memphis Grizzlies team to be anywhere close to where they are now.
Without Jaren Jackson Jr., the team’s best defender and second-best overall player, the Grizzlies were projected by some to finish in last place in the Western Conference Standings. But they pressed on.
A large part of this team’s success can be traced to Ja Morant, who really took a big step forward in his second season in the NBA. In just a few short games at the end of the season, he elevated himself to star status.
Memphis Grizzlies PG Ja Morant elevated his game while leaving room for improvement
As mentioned, Ja Morant’s season wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows. For a long stretch of the year, he was playing extremely inconsistent basketball, unable to get into a groove.
During that time, Jonas Valanciunas was stepping up as the best player on the team. In fact, if you’re a Grizzlies fan who watched most of the games this year, you know as well as anybody that JV could be considered the MVP for the middle stretch of 2021.
That said, Ja Morant stepped into a groove to finish out the year, taking control over his team in the play-in tournament and NBA Playoff series against the Utah Jazz.
Specifically, though, how did he perform on each end of the floor?
Memphis Grizzlies PG Ja Morant took big strides on the offense end
On paper, Ja Morant’s offense may not look overly impressive in year two. His points per game increased marginally, his shooting percentages went down, and the rest of his numbers stagnated. So why does it still seem like he improved so much?
Well, because he did. Each of the improvements to Ja Morant’s game in 2021 were subtle but vitally important to his game.
For example, one area that the young star improved in was his ability to take the ball to the paint and draw fouls. Looking across his statistics, not much jumps out, but his free throw attempts per game improved pretty drastically. In his rookie season, he shot 4.6 free throws per contest. This past season, he shot 5.9 per game.
But when shooting those free throws, his numbers were down from the line. In fact, his shooting percentages all across the board went down. So what gives?
Well, he simply started the season in a shooting slump. For a good portion of 2021, there was a lid on the bucket and it was hampering his ability to do anything productive on offense. We saw him finally start to hit shots down the stretch, which opened up an entirely new game for him to play, as he averaged over 30 points per game in the playoffs.
One not-so-subtle area that saw improvement from Morant was his ability to create highlight plays. Even though this won’t show up on any stat sheet, these plays give huge momentum boosts to the Grizzlies’ offense. Morant went from the occasional highlight pass or dunk in 2019-20 to multiple per game in 2020-21.
It may not be obvious to the casual fan, but Morant took huge strides in year two on the offensive end.
Memphis Grizzlies PG Ja Morant is still gradually learning how to play effective defense
Defense: There aren’t many negatives to say about Ja Morant’s defense thus far in the league. He won’t be mentioned on any NBA All-Defensive teams but the young point guard has held his own in the league.
Many NBA stars try to preserve all of their energy for the defensive end of the floor *cough* James Harden *cough*— Morant does not do this.
Even though the soon-to-be third-year point guard out of Murray State isn’t the most elite on-ball defender in the league, he can be an extremely feisty player when he is challenged by anybody. His rebound, steal, and block numbers look virtually identical to last season, but the young guard is learning to play cohesively with the rest of his team on defense.
Leadership: Compared to his defense, Ja Morant’s leadership abilities have taken gigantic strides from a year ago. That said, his leadership abilities didn’t seem to improve much until the end of the season, where it became clear that he was growing as a player.
At just 21-years old, Morant did a couple of things that nobody would have expected out of him. First, he took down Stephen Curry head-to-head. Granted, the Warriors were still without Klay Thompson but nobody had given the Grizzlies a chance in that matchup. Morant played his best basketball of the year, knocking down clutch shots and getting his team entry to the NBA Playoffs.
He would continue to play well in the Grizzlies’ first-round series against the Jazz, averaging over 30 points per contest. Even though the Grizz didn’t get the win, Morant made it clear that he’s ready to lead his team when it matters.